Thursday, September 4, 2008

Matt wanted me to make zucchini bread this week with the 2 giant zucchinis we still have in the fridge from the last 2 CSA boxes. Instead I decided to make zucchini cupcakes, with dark chocolate of course.When researching recipes for these cupcakes I worried that they were going to turn out too heavy & bread-like. While bread is good that isn't the texture I wanted in my cupcakes. Then I found this recipe. It's for a chocolate & zucchini cake instead of bread & claimed to be moist yet not heavy, I figured this was just the starting point I needed. I sized the recipe down quite a bit in order to just make 8 cupcakes. I also changed some of the proportions in hopes of making it even lighter. Buttermilk was exchanged for regular milk because I like the extra flavor it adds especially with chocolate.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Prepare 8 muffin tins.Beat together the butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in the egg & vanilla. Add the cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon & 1/4 c of flour. Beat to combine. Add the buttermilk & beat until combined. Add in the remaining 1/2 c flour & beat until just combined, the dough will be quite stiff but don't worry the zucchini adds a lot of moisture. Stir in the zucchini.

Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake for 22 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a rack before frosting.

Makes 8

The smell of these baking was incredible, like the best chocolate cake! It was all I could do to not eat one right out of the oven. The cake is just perfect, light, moist, fluffy & chocolaty.We made two different flavors of cream cheese frosting for these cupcakes. Half the batch was vanilla & half was orange. Both flavors complimented the cupcake perfectly. I was afraid the orange would be overpowering but it wasn't in the slightest. Neither of us could decided which flavor we liked better.

this may be the most fabulous use for a glut of zucchini that i've seen yet, mostly because chocolate and cream cheese frosting are involved. i love the idea of using the flavor of orange with these--brilliant! :)

Thanks for the recipe! I just made a batch (minis though) and even without any frosting yet (they're still cooling) they are very yummy. I only used regular cocoa powder so can imagine how decadent they would be with the special dark variety.

My husband just does not understand my fascination with reading blogs to do with food & recipes (since I rarely cook anymore!) - until I made the cupcakes (doubled) and penne with zucchini and sausage on Sunday. FAB-U-LOUS. Ten cupcakes went to work with me Monday...needless to say, I came home empty handed. Hubby says "Keep 'em comin'!"